Automatic identification – applications and technologies

Automatic identification technologies are used in a wide range of applications. The applications vary from process automation to security control. The publications written on the use of automatic identification have been very practice oriented, and usually written by systems providers inclined to marketing their solutions. Until now, few efforts have been made to classify the various automatic identification applications. Furthermore, the suitability of different identification technologies to different kinds of logistics applications has been scarcely studied by neutral parties. First, this article builds four categories of automatic identification applications: Authentication, tracking, process effectiveness, and information management applications. Then, the article reviews different identification technologies on their technological basis, and functionality. Finally, criteria for evaluating the functionality of different technologies in the application areas are proposed. The criteria are then applied to compare bar coding and radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies in the different types of applications. Key words: Automatic identification, bar code, radio frequency identification (RFID), logistic